Pete McMartin: A marriage of inconvenience

Pete McMartin, Vancouver Sun03.27.2014

Janice Abbott, executive director of the Atira Women’s Resource Society, one of the largest social housing agencies in the Downtown Eastside, is married to Shayne Ramsay, CEO of BC Housing, the provincial government body responsible for funding and overseeing such housing.Ward Perrin
/ Vancouver Sun

Shayne Ramsay, left, CEO of BC Housing, the provincial government body responsible for funding and overseeing social housing agencies, is married to Janice Abbott, executive director of the Atira Women’s Resource Society, one of the largest social housing agencies in the Downtown Eastside.NICK PROCAYLO
/ PNG

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The public is not in the habit of paying attention to who runs what in the social agencies of the Downtown Eastside unless, of course, it turns out the people running the social welfare agencies stay in $800 hotel rooms. In that case, welcome to Page 1!

In general, though, the politics of the Downtown Eastside are dreary and tiresome — a swamp one has to trudge through.

Thus, it wouldn’t be high in the public’s radar that Janice Abbott, executive director of the Atira Women’s Resource Society, one of the largest social housing agencies in the Downtown Eastside, is married to Shayne Ramsay, CEO of BC Housing, the provincial government body responsible for funding and overseeing such housing.

But their marriage, which took place in 2010, is public knowledge in that it has attracted occasional comment in the media.

The issue those media comments addressed was, of course, the danger of a conflict of interest. In September 2012, for example, Vancouver Courier columnist Allen Garr made an astute observation of the separation between the couple’s personal and official relationships when he wrote:

“It is incredulous to believe that this has not influenced BC Housing staff in their decision making. It simply defies any understanding of human nature to think that the relationship hasn’t seriously infected the whole dynamic among social agencies all fighting for the same projects.”

In their own defence, Ramsay and Abbott have repeatedly claimed there is no conflict, or that if a possible conflict did exist it had been resolved. Ramsay has stated he must formally recuse himself whenever matters involving Atira arise within BC Housing.

At this, we have to take them at their word, which in itself is problematic. They never talk shop between the second glass of wine and brushing their teeth before bedtime? Well, OK.

But a conflict of interest doesn’t just manifest itself in cases that can be proven to be so: It also manifests itself in the appearance of a conflict of interest. As Garr pointed out, human nature is a funny and ineffable thing. And bosses don’t need to visibly exert power to wield it. That is, my publisher doesn’t have to be in the newsroom for me to feel him looking over my shoulder. And if my publisher had got his kid a job in the newsroom, I’m sure as hell not going to be slagging his father around the water cooler.

The subject of relationships has been an explosive issue in the Downtown Eastside, nor are they new to the neighbourhood. In 2010, the provincial government brought suit against the once venerable Downtown Eastside Residents Association for improper use of rent-subsidy payments and failure to pay $500,000 in back taxes. There were accusations then that the organization was riddled with nepotism and favouritism.

Most recently, the province’s financial review and audit of the Portland Hotel Society uncovered the society employing friends of friends in its affiliate organizations for great profit. Its co-executive directors were husband and wife who kept an office in the basement of their home, for which they billed the society some $1,400 a month. The brother of the Portland’s senior accountant was sole shareholder of three of the society’s affiliates. The audit repeatedly referred to the dangers of non-arms length relationships between the board of directors and the management as compromising the society’s governance.

One irony in all the exposure of the Portland’s troubles was Shayne Ramsay’s role in it. Last week, when the government made the financial review and audit public, there was Ramsay at the press conference taking questions from the media on all the Portland’s cosy relationships.

But when an internal audit of Atira came to The Sun’s attention — one stating there was “significant doubt on the ability of Atira Women’s Resource Society to continue as a going concern” — Ramsay, because of his marriage to Abbott, must recuse himself on the issue. Or, at least, I assume he must. At any rate, he failed to respond to interview requests Wednesday from both me and Sun reporter Jeff Lee.

That audit showed a non-profit that was severely financially stressed, with a working capital deficiency on the books of almost $2.25 million and an accumulated deficit of almost $1.27 million.

Abbott, however, assured us everything was fine, and that any deficit, caused by renovations to dilapidated SRO hotels Atira had been contracted by BC Housing to operate, had been covered by an injection of almost $840,000 from BC Housing.

Is that a conflict of interest?

B.C. Housing Minister Rich Coleman, Ramsay’s boss, asked for comment Wednesday, said no, and that Ramsay had always been upfront with him about their relationship. The government, Coleman said, had erected “the appropriate firewalls” to separate any business or government interaction between them.

“People are allowed to have relationships, Pete,” Coleman said.

But we are talking about more than relationships here. We are talking about perception. And the public is allowed to look on the growing swamp that is the Downtown Eastside and wonder if the provincial government has done its best to clean that swamp or has allowed it to grow.

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Pete McMartin: A marriage of inconvenience

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